This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.


Those famous words from the chapter Riddles in the Dark in JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit rings home the theme of what I've been mulling on the past few days. 


Time is something that defies and yet defines us mortals at every turn. We kill it, yet it never dies; we waste it, yet it remains even when we do not. We never have enough of it, and yet we often wish to be rid of particular bits of it that we still have. No matter how long we chase after it, it will always run away from us successfully; yet when we run from it, it always catches up to us.  We may take a moment, which uses up that moment, even if that moment was used to reflect on a previous moment. Each moment of time is different than the last, and yet every single moment is the same as the moment previous to it and the moment succeeding it. Times do not change, not really, but we are changed by time. 


Every single one of us has an unspecified amount of time, and no matter what we do or how we act or what choices we make, that amount will not change, and when that last minute ticks away, we punch out life's time-card. When we are young, seconds seem like minutes, minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days, and days years and years decades, but very shortly this entire perception is tipped on its head, and we are looking back at all of life's years as mere seconds, and we despair because we wasted many of them waiting for the future. Of course, even this nostalgic rumination ignores the fact that we could be even closer to the end of our particular collection than we might like to think. Tomorrow, I could be swept off this earth by an errant driver or a small clot in the blood vessels in my brain that I was blissfully unaware was forming, or I could live out that next day like the one before and not think twice about the dangers I so fortunately avoided. 


In the end, all that is left is to use the allotment of time you've been given wisely. To enjoy each minute of each day as the gift they are, and to give others the same courtesy--they may have even less time than you do. Love those around you with everything you have, and work as hard as you can as though working for God. This is no new advice, certainly, but it bears rehearsing, for it is so very easy to forget. I leave you now with a lyric:

Another Day

(Tim O Brien and Darell Scott)

This world is made from sweat and toil
Pushing muscle and elbow oil
We can’t lie too long in the shade
Because everyday must be remade

Some days we fall some days we fly
In the end we all must die
Our rotten flesh and broken bones
Will feed the ground that we call home
Will feed the ground that we call home

A new sprout grows from a fallen tree
This song will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eyes
It’s another day to live and die
It’s another day to live and die

Now I’ve run naked in the wild
Seen the beauty of a new born child
Like the alchemists of old
I’ve tried to spin my straw to gold

Most times a giver some times a thief
So full of hope but prone to grief
Between freedom and despair
I know the truth is lying there
I know the truth is lying there

A new sprout grows from a fallen tree
This song will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eyes
It’s another day to live and die
It’s another day to live and die

Go on now don’t you worry about me
You’ve miles to go and a world to see
My life’s been long and full and good
I’ve run this race the best I could

It’s a short time here and a long apart
The same song rings in both our hearts
So take this guitar when I’m gone
Write your rhymes and pass it on

A new sprout grows from a fallen tree
This song will go on after me
So lift your heart and dry your eyes
It’s another day to live and die
It’s another day to live and die

Today's Venti Caramel Macchiato (No Foam Edition)

I know it's been a while, but are you sure you're not . . . projecting?

In case you're wondering, I'm currently listening to: Robin Hood OST, by Marc Streitenfeld. It's a great soundtrack. Shout-out to Sam for alerting me to its awesomeness.

So, amidst the five-billion or so (rough estimate) republican primary debates, coupled with my hatred and bitterness toward the political system as a whole, my apathy in regards either party, and my relative insanity in regards anything remotely resembling a politically acceptable viewpoint, I have started a blog to talk about politics, economics, and other related issues, so that you can all be spared my amateur op-ed-itizing. You can find it here. I promise it'll at least be entertaining, and possibly borderline offensive to some of you. I cannot, however, promise cookies. You can all thank me later.

As always, I seem to be between shows to watch via netflix, hulu, or whatever. I think the problem might be the fact that I like to have shows I haven't seen before on in the background while I do other things.... needless to say, I go through shows like a 

squirrel on crack (quite an image, eh?). But I do have a new recommendation for ya'll. It's called Spy, and it's a new, quirky british show that hulu presents every friday. There are parts of it that I don't care for (Marcus can be really irritating), but overall, the show is fun and entertaining. Also, if you haven't jumped onto the IT Crowd train yet, get a move on! It's on Netflix streaming. . . so you really have no excuse.

Thanksgiving is coming up very quickly, and for those of us who love the holiday season, it is a time of excitement and anticipation and too many decorations. Of course, this means that for me, I plan to sit alone and catch up on some light reading. Honestly, though. I am looking forward to this Thanksgiving. It's going to be a very fun time. It's the fifth annual Tangentine Cup, in which my friends all come over and compete for the right to claim rugby supremacy and a trophy for the next year before feasting on a large breakfast of delicious food prepared by my parents. Great times. And this year, Becca is coming to enjoy the show. I'm super Pumped! In addition to this, there is the always wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, and the important Packers-Lions game. It's going to be more fun than a room full of chimpanzees debating the merits of rhetoric with Winston Churchill, which, actually, is something I would watch.

I recently did something I have never done before: I bought a video game the day it came out. Now, I'm normally a huge stickler for waiting for the prices to come down so that I don't have to feel slighted when I realize the game really doesn't seem worth the 59.99 I payed for it. I made an exception, however, for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. My reasoning was thusly: I really enjoyed the previous Modern Warfare installments, and knew that by the time it fell to within what I considered the "buyable range" I would be at the tail end of the game's life cycle, and with a primarily online game, this is only about a year to year and a half. Add to this, I know that my time to play video games will significantly decrease when I have actual things to do in the evenings (something that is lacking right now), I figured I've give video gaming one last big hurrah. This is not to say that I will not play video games again, but that I realize that my current mode of becoming fanatical about a game or two and playing it in every spare moment is a non-possibility. I also think there are wiser things to spend money on when one is married than a video game one will probably not have enough time to devote to it to be actually good (which unfortunately is my modus operandi for any endeavor. . . ). So far, I am very happy with MW3. It's been a very fun experience getting into a game at the very start.

Also, thanks to all of you who have been praying for me. I am doing much better since my last major post, and your thoughts and prayers meant (and mean) a lot. 

Until next time, be careful you don't get slurry...

Today's Cup O' Rosy

And to think, you could be bending elements . . . .

So, I had a really, quite long post all written out, and I was quite proud of it, having spent a good hour on it, and I went to publish it, and it didn't publish, and I went to save it, and it took my to a different page, and erased my data.......so, now I'm pretty pissed at blogger. I'll try to see if I can regurgitate what I had from memory, though I'm certain it won't be as good. Sorry ya'll! new post coming soon, though.